James McNeil Tanner
James McNeil Tanner, better known as Jim Tanner. Personality Jim was a bit defiant. Even though he was dirt poor, he possessed some pride. Appearance When he first met Jacky, he was a very ragged and dirty boy, the very picture of a wharf rat. His ribs stuck out under his too-short shirt and was clear that he hasn't eaten in a while. Jim was around maybe thirteen or fourteen. His hair was held back with a piece of old twine and both his knees could be seen through the rips in his trousers that end raggedly at his calves. He was also barefoot. Jacky purchased Jim a pair of trousers, drawers, and a blue striped shirt. She later, bought him a heavy jacket, blue cap, boots, and a bit of blue ribbon to tie back his curly brown hair. Claire, in Dovecote embroidered Morning Star on the headband of his blue cap, in white thread for him. Jacky bought Jim a black boatman's hat adorned with a red grosgrain band. Background His mother died during birth. His father was lost at sea a year before he met Jacky. Not having anyone to take him in, he became homeless. He slept under the docks, mostly, sometimes in wood sheds when he could find one that wasn’t locked. Story Jim was severely beaten, protecting the Morning Star. Jacky had Jim and the Star, moved to Dovecote. The farm kids found Jim to be an exotic, a handsome boy who wore a striped jersey, bore evidence on his face of a recent fight, walked with a swaggering roll in his step, and knew how to sail a boat. The boys, of course, wanted to pound him, it being in the nature of boys to do that, but Jacky asked Edward, the stable boy, to keep the others from beating him until he had fully recovered from his wounds. They agreed, and by the time he had healed, they were all friends and so they forgoed that particular male ritual. The girls, on the other hand, had something else on their minds, more than one calico bonnet cocked in his direction. Jacky noticed that Claire, the thirteen-year-old daughter of George Findley, the head hostler in the big stables, had for certain set her own sights on unsuspecting Jim. They were not there many days before the clever Claire had taken his blue cap and embroidered Morning Star on the headband in white thread for him. Smart girl. Jim's first task was to paint the buoys, which he did in the Great Barn with Claire in attendance, oohing and aahing over his skill with the brush. Then, after the paint had dried, Jacky and Jim rigged and baited their traps and placed them out in the bay. It was with great joy and anticipation that they dropped them over the side, one by one. They vowed that they would not check them for three whole days, but when they stood on the shore and watched the buoys bouncing all jaunty out on the waves, they couldn't wait and were out on the second day, pulling them up. They didn't catch anything that day worth keeping, just some small crabs and trash fish, but it was wildly exciting, seeing the traps surge out of the cold water and wondering just what they might hold. Over the next few weeks, they moved the traps around till, at last, they did begin to draw some riches from the sea. While scouting on the Evening Star, he ran into that pack of outlaw Indians, the ones we had fought off back up on the Ohio, and he had to flee south, for the wind was against him, and as it was, he just barely managed to outdistance the renegades as they pursued him in their swift canoes. He knew it was the same band of Indians, for their leader was the man with his face painted half red. Skills *He can read and cipher a bit. *Jacky bought Jim a small-bore rifle, a German-made carbine. He practiced and become quite accurate with it. *Jim watched Mike Fink in every way, especially in how he handled the boat. He learned how to operate the sweep, by pretend to admire him and draw him out as to how this boat was ran with a full crew on board. *Jim has no music in him at all, and his voice is that of a tone-deaf frog. *Jacky has required Jim to become more proficient in his studies of the alphabet and mathematics. He does know how to read, basically. *Jim requested a tomahawk and was given one, for the battle at the Cave-in-Rock.